Selector switch for automatic telephone systems



Jan. 10, 1933. w. K. SCHNEF'F 1,893,555

SELECTOR SWITCH FOR AUTOMATIC TELEPHONE SYSTEMS Filed May 4:. 1951 Z5 Sheew-Sheet 1 l/VVENTOR MALI/4M ff SCHNEPF A l TORNE V Jan. 10, 1933. w. K. SCHNEPF SELECTOR SWITCH FOR AUTOMATIC TELEPHONE SYSTEMS 3 Sheets-Sheet Filed May 4, 1931 INVENTOR v m W flm M w K N 4% L m Jan. 10, 1933. w. K; SCHNEPF SELECTOR SWITCH FOR AUTOMATIC TELEPHONE SYSTEMS Filed May 4, 1951 3 Sheets-Sheet 1N VENTOR ML u/wfl. jam/EFF ORA E Y Patented Jan. 10, 1933 1 UNITED STATES PATENT GFFICE WILLIAM K. SCHNEI'F, E ROCHESTER, NEW YORK SELECTOR SWITCH FOR AUTOMATIC TELEPHONE SYSTEMS Application filed May 4, 1931. Serial No. 534,899.

This invention relates to automatic telehorizontal rows of contact members verticalphone systems and has for its object to proly as illustrated in Figures 2 and 3. All of ride a novel construction of selector switch the inner ends of the contact members 2, 2 are for such telephone systems. spaced a uniform predetermined distance This and other objects and attendant ad from the common center above referred to vantages of the invention will become more and are thus placed in a spherical arrange readily apparent from the detailed descripment for a purpose that will presently aption thereof which follows, reference being pear. had to the accompanying drawings in which The outer ends of the contact members 2, 2

19 Figure 1 is a top plan view of the selector project of course correspondingly from the switch. opposite side of the standard 3 and to these Figure 2 is a partial section and elevation outer ends are connected the telephone circuits of one side of the selector switch with the which are to be controlled by the selector switch in an inoperative position, the section switch. Three of the contact members 2, 2

15 being taken on the line 2412-200 of Figure 1. are used in making a telephone connection Figure 3 is a partial section and elevation and the movable switch member 5 thru which of the other side of the selector switch with the various telephone circuits are connected the switch in an operative position. is therefore provided with three contact mem- Figure 4 is an end elevation of the selector hers 6, 6. 20 switch. The switch member 5 is made up in the Figure 5 is a vertical sectional view of the form of an arm which has at the inner end selector switch, the section being taken on thereof a pivot stud 8. This stud is mounted the line 500-5x of Figure 1. in a suitable bearing provided in the offset Figure 6 is a partial horizontal sectional central portion of the rocking shaft 9 and 25 view and bottom plan view of a portion of thus gives the switch member a laterally the selector switch, the section being taken angular movement on the rocking shaft 9 to on the line 6a2600 of Figure 5. bring the contact members 6, 6 thereof into Figure 7 is a vertical sectional view of a contact with the laterally spaced contact portion of the selector switch, the section be members 2, 2, while the rocking shaft 9 gives ing taken on the line 7a27a2 of Figure 5. the switch member a vertically angular move- Figure 8 is a horizontal sectional view simment to bring the contact members 6, 6 also ilar to that illustrated in Figure 6 shoving into contact with the vertically spaced conslightly modified form of some of the op tact members 2, 2. The arm or switch memerating members of the switch. her 5 is thus mounted in the common center of In the several figures of the drawings like the spherically arranged contact member 2, 2 reference numerals indicate like parts. and this together with vertically and lateral- The selector switch forming the subject ly angular motion provided for the arm matter of my present invention is supported makes possible to bring the contact members on a suitable base 1, at one end of which are 6, 6 of the arm with any three correspondprovided the fixed contact members 2, 2. ingly arranged contact members 2, 2 on the These contact members are mounted radially standard 3. to a common center and are arranged spheri- Figures 1 and 2 show the switch member cally in vertical and horizontal rows on a 5 in its inoperative position from which it is suitable standard 3, the lower end of which elevated to the elevation in which the contacts projects from the base 1. The standard 3 is 2 are located. with which connection is to be built up of a series of spacing plates 4, 4 of made. To complete the connection after the suitable insulating material and the contact arm or switch member has been elevated, it members 2, 2 are suitably spacedhorizontally is swung laterally until the contact members on these plates as illustrated in Figure 1 6, 6 of the switch arm make contact with the 50 while the plates themselves space successive desired contact members 2, 2 of the standard 3. The combined laterally angular movement and vertically angular movement given to the switch arm from a fixed center thus makes it possible to have the contact members of the switch arm brought into contact with any three correspondingly spaced fixed contact members 2 2 on the standard 3.

For the operation of the switch arm into and out of contact with the fixed contacts 2, 2 four pair of electro magnets 10 11, 12 and 13 are provided. Cf these electro magnets 10 and 11 operate a suitable mechanism forv elevating and lowering the switch arm 5, while electro magnets 12 and 13 operate to move the switch arm laterally into contact and out of contact with the connecting members 2, 2. Electro magnets 10 and 11 are mounted in a horizontal position on the base plate 1 by means of the supporting braclret 1 1, and electro magnets 12 and 13 are mounted in a horizontal position on the base plate 1 by means of the bracket 15. Bracket 14 has a hole 16 therethru and in this hole is mounted to rock the lever armature 17. A pair of pivot pins 18, 18 are threaded in the bracket 14 and their pointed ends project into the hole 16 at opposite sides thereof and engage suitable bearings provided in the sides of the lever armature to pivotally support this lever armature intermediate of the hole. The outer end of the lever armature which projects rearwardly of the electro magnet-s has an expansion spring 19 attached thereto which operates to yieldingly hold the lever armature against the stop bracket 19A to normally hold this lever in a predetermined position from which it is moved when the magnets 11 are energized to attract the inner end of the lever armature. For this purpose the lever armature passes thru between the electro magnets 10 and 11 and is bent upwardly at the inner end thereof. The'up turned end of the lever armature carries the spring pawl 20 and rigid pawl 21 which engage the segmental ratchet gears 22 and 23 respectively which are fastened together and move in unison as vill hereinafter be described.

In order to attract the lever armature 1'? when the electro magnets 11 are energized, the cores 24 of these magnets are extended upwardly and project above the magnets into proper spaced relation to the under side the armature lever 17. The armature, when attracted by the electro magnets 11 11, is thus swung from an angular position into a practically horizontal position. During this movement the spring pawl 20 engages one of the ratchet teeth in the ratchet gear 22 and advances this ratchet gear one step. At the same time the spring pawl 20 operates to move the ratchet 22, the rigid pawl 21 moves downwardly toward the ratchet gear 23 so that by the time the spring pawl has moved its ratchet gear a predetermined step, the rigid pawl engages a tooth in the ratchet gear 23 to prevent both of the ratchet gears from advancing in the same direction more than the one step at a time. In this way an accurate step step movement in one direction is imparted to the ratchet gears on the operation of the lever armature by the magnets 11.

To hold the ratchet gears temporarily in the advanced position after each movement by the armature, a second spring pawl 25 yieldingly engages the ratchet teeth of the ratchet gear 22. This spring pawl is mount ed on the bracket 26 and engages the ratchet teeth in such a manner that it permits the advancement of the ratchet gear. by the lever armature but prevents a return movement thereof unless disengaged from the teeth as will hereinafter be described.

As illustrated in section in Figure 5 the ratchet gears 22 and 23 are carried on the rocking shaft 9 and are suitably heyedthereto near one end thereof. The rocking shaft is mounted in two bearing blocks 27 and 28 which support this shaft with the offset middle of it intermediate of the bearing blocks. As illustrated in Figure 5 one side of the ratchet gear is undercut arounl the shaft 9 to provide an annularchannel 29 in the ratchet gear. In this annular channel is located a torsion spring 30, one end of which is anchored in the side of the bearing block 28 while the other end. is anchored in the ratchet gear 22. The torsion of this spring is such that it yieldingly resists the step by step movement of the ratchet gears 22 and 23 and is gradually, wound up by this movement. W hen therefore the ratchet gears are r leased by the spring pawls 20 and 25 the action of the wound up torsion spring rotates the ratchet gears in the reverse direction and moves them back to the original starting position. The movement of the ratchet gears 22 and 23 is governed by the stop pin 31 projecting from the side of the bearing block 28. This stop pin projects into a segmental groove 32 in the periphery of the ratchet gear 22 and limits the movement of the ratchet gear by its contact with either one end or the other of this groove.

To release the ratchet gears after they have been advanced by the armature lever 17 both of the spring pawls 20 and 25 must be disengaged from the teeth of the ratchet wheel 22. This is done by the armature 33 operated by the electro magnets 10 10. This armature is pivoted at the lower end between a pair of lugs 3 1 in front of the electro magnets 11, 11. The armature projects upwardly from the base plate 1 and its center is out out to permit the ratchet gears 22 and 23 to project therethru. At the bottom of the opening in the armature 33 is provided a lug 35 which projects rearward .y of the armature into close proximity to the spring pawl 25.

The upper edge of the opening in the armature 33 is located in close proximity to the spring pawl 20 so that on a movement of the armature 33 to the right in Figures 3 and 7 both spring pawls are simultaneously forced out of engagen'ient with the teeth of the ratchet gear 22 which permits the torsion spring 30 to return the ratchet gear to its normal starting position.

At the top the armature 33 is bifurcated and the bifurcations project rearwardly and upwardly in front of the cores 36, 36 of the electro magnets 10, 10. As these electro magnets are therefore energized the armature 33 is attracted by them and operates to disengage the spring pawls 20 and 25 from the ratchet gear 22 to release this gear for its return movement by the torsion spring 30, as above described.

As heretofore pointed out, the ratchet gears 22 and 23 are carried on the rocking shaft 9 and as this shaft has the switch arm 5 pivoted thereon the step by step movement imparted to the ratchet gears raises the outer ends of the contact members 6, 6 of this arm a dis tance equal to the spacing between fixed contact members 2, 2 on the standard 3. In this way the contact members of the arm may be brought into horizontal alignment with any of the fixed contact members of the standard 3. The raising and lowering of the switch arm is of course done with the switch arm in the position illustrated in Figure 1 in which. position the upward and downward move ment will not be obstructed by any of the fixed contact members 2, 2.

After the switch arm has been elevated by the mechanism above described and brought in horizontal alignment with the fixed contact member with which contact is desired, the switch arm must be swung laterally until the desired contact is made. This lateral swinging movement of the switch arm is caused by the operation of the armatures 39 and 40 and by the electro magnets 12, 12 and 13, 13 respectively. Both of these armatures are swiveled at the bottom, one behind the other between two pair of pivot pins 41 and 42 respectively. Armature 39 is off set at the top so as to bring its upper end the proper distance from the cores 12A of the magnets 12. In one of these cores is threaded the screw 42 which passes thru a hole in the armature 39 with its head 43 located on the outside thereof. The other core 12A is countersunk in the center to have one end of the expansion spring 44 nest therein. This spring is interposed between the armature 39 and the core 12A. and normally holds the armature away from the core or forces it away from the core after it has been attracted by the magnets and the magnets are no longer energized to hold it in the attracted position. The head 43 of the screw 42 serves as a stop which limits the movement of the armature away from the magnets.

The armature 39 has the arm 45 projecting from one side of it and at the outer end this arm is bifurcated and engages into the annular groove 46 provided in the collar at the outer end of the sliding shaft 47.

The armature 40 also has an arm 48 projecting from one side of it and the outer end of this arm is bifurcated and engages into the annular groove 49 provided in the collar at the outer end of the hollow shaft 50. As illustrated in section in Figure 5 the rocking shaft 9 is hollow and has the hollow shaft 50 mounted to slide in and out thereof. Sliding shaft 47 in turn is mounted to slide within the hollow shaft 50 so that both of these shafts may be operated to slide within the rocking shaft 9.

The hollow shaft 50, which is operated by the armature 40 and its arm 48, serves to give the switch arm its lateral motion. For this purpose the pivot pin 8 of the rocking shaft has keyed or otherwise suitably fastened to it two mutilated segmental ratchets 51 and 52. Ratchet 51 is operated by the spring pawl 53 which engages the ratchet teeth thereof and is carried on the outer end of the arm 54 which in turn is carried by the hollow shaft 50 to which it is fastened on the under side thereof as illustrated in Figures 5 and 6. On the attraction of the armature 40 by the magnets 13, 13 the hollow shaft 50 is moved toward the switch arm and in so doing moves the arm 54 and with it the pawl 53 to advance the ratchet one step and to give the switch arm 5 a correspoi'idingly lateral movement. The teeth of the ratchet 51 are also engaged by the spring pawl 55 which is mounted on the end of the stationary arm 56. This second spring pawl serves to hold the ratchet in the advanced position on the return movement of the first spring pawl 53.

To prevent the switch arm from being moved too far by the ratchet 51 a rigid pawl 57 is carried on the arm 54 so as to engage the ratchet 52 at the end of its movement. In this way the spring pawl 53 can only advance the ratchet one step because by the time the ratchet has been advanced the one step, pawl 57 engages the teeth of the ratchet 52 and prevents a further rotation of the stud 8. A step by step lateral movement of the switch arm is thus produced by consecutive movements of the armature 40. In this way armature 17 operates to raise the switch arm to the desired elevation at which the fixed contacts are located with which connection is desired and after the elevation has been reached, armature 40 operates to swing the switch arm laterally until contact is made between the contacts of the arm and the fixed contacts of the standard.

lVhen it is desired to break the contact between the contact members of the switch member and the contact members of the standard and return the switch member to its original starting position, the switch arm must first be swung laterally out of contac with the fixed contact members 2. For this purpose the spring .pawls 53 and 55 are disengaged from the teeth of the ratchet 51 and when this is done the coil spring 58 wound around the pivot pin 8 and anchored to the post 59 operates to turn the pivot pin and with it the switch arm until one side of the mutilated ratchet 51 engages the pin 60 and is stopped thereby. In this position the switch arm has been moved to a position to one side of the fixed contact members and is free to be swung downwardly to its starting position by means of the armature 33 and the mechanism associated with it as described above.

To move the spring pawls 53 and 55 out of engagement with the teeth of the ratchet 51 a small lever 61 is pivoted at 62 to the under side of the off set portion of the rocking shaft 9. The outer end of this lever normally rests against the end of the spring pawls 53 and 55 so that when the lever is swung outwardly the pawls are forced out of engagement with the ratchet teeth. This is done by the sliding shaft l7 which carries near the inner end of it a downwardly projecting pin 63. This pin normally rests against the periphery of the lever 61 so that when it is moved by the sliding shaft on the operation of the armature 39 it swings the lever as above pointed out and disengages the spring pawls from the ratchet teeth to allow the coil spring 58 to turn the pivot pin and return the switch arm to one side of the contact members 2, 2.

While the switch arm 5 is operated to bring its contact members 6, 6 in contact, predetermined contact members 2, 2 and auxiliary switch is opened and closed by the lateral movement of the switch arm 5. This switch comprises a fixed pair of contacts 65, 65 mounted on the upright 66 and a pair of movable contacts 67, 67 mounted on a suitable insulating block 68 carried by the sliding shaft 69. This shaft is adapted to slide in and out of a bearing provided in the bracket 70 which projects into the hollow rocking shaft 9. The inner end of the sliding shaft 69 normally abuts against the end of the plunger 71 mounted to slidewithin the rocking shaft 9. This plunger 1s provided wlth a lug 72 which projects thru a groove in the rocking shaft 9 and is normally engaged by the perimeter of the cam 73. This cam is pivoted at 7 1 to the offset portion of the rock ing shaft 9 and is also engaged by the cam member 7 5 which projects from the rear of the switch arm 5.

When therefore the switch arm is swung laterally to bring its contact members 6, 6 out of contact with the fixed contact members 2, 2 the cam operates to swing the cam 73 on its pivot 74 and in doing so moves the lug 72 to shift the plunger 71 against the sliding shaft 69' which in turn moves the insulating block 68 and with it the contacts 67, 67 so that these contacts are brought in con tact with the fixed contacts 65, 65 to close the switch. As the switch arm is moved into contactgwith the contact members 2, 2, the switch is opened because the contacts 67 67 are then separated from the contacts 65., 65 and kept'separate until the switch arm is again moved out of contact with these contact members.

The switch thus formed by the contacts 65, 65 and 67, 67 control a circuit thru which magnets 11, 11 are energized. When the switch arm 5 has been swung horizontally free of the contacts 2, 2 the circuit is closed and the magnets 11, 11 are energized and attract armature 33. This forces the spring pawls 20 and 25 out of engagement with the ratchets 22 and 23 and allows the torsion spring 30 to rock the rocking shaft so as to swing the switch arm 5 downwardly to a starting position.

In Figure 8 I have shown a slight modification of the operating mechanism for advancing the ratchet 51 by a step by step movement. In this modification and rocking shaft 9 is not hollow and the pawl with which the ratchet is moved is mounted on an arm 18 which projects from a sleeve 82. This sleeve is mounted to slide on the rocking shaft 9 and carries a pin 83. This pin in turn engages into the slot 84: provided in the arm 85 so that by moving the arm 85 by means of the rod 86 the arm 31 and pawl 80 is moved to advance the ratchet 51. For the purpose of disengaging the pawls 80 from the ratchet 51 an inclined cam 87 is carried on the arm 88 which projects from the sleeve 90. The sleeve 90 is mounted to slide on the rocking shaft and carries the pin 91 which engages the slotted arm 92 which may be moved back and forth by means of the rod 93. \Vhen the cam 87 is thus moved to the right in Figure 8 it engages under the pawl 80 and gradually forces it out of engagement with the teeth thereof.

1 claim:

1. In a selector switch for automatic telephones having spherically arranged contact members grouped around a common center, the combination of a hollow rocking shaft, pivot means carried by said shaft concentric with said contact members, a switch arm mounted to swing on said pivot means carried by said rocking shaft at right angles to the axis of rotation of said shaft, a sliding shaft mounted within the hollow portion of said shaft, and means associated with said switch I arm and operated by said'sliding shaft to cause said switch arm to swing on said pivot means on said shaft in the common center around which said contact members are grouped.

2. In a selector switch for automatic telephones having spherically arranged contact members, the combination of a shaft having an off set section intermediate thereof, a pivot stud mounted to rotate in said ofiset section of said shaft, a switch arm keyed to said pivot stud to swing in the center of said shaft in a plane parallel to the axis thereof, ratchet means carried by said pivot stud, and a slidin g member carried by said shaft and moving parallel to the axis thereof, means for reciprocating said sliding member and means operated on the reciprocation of said sliding member for operating said ratchet means to cause said switch arm to swing on said shaft independently of the rocking movement thereof.

3. In a selector for automatic telephone systems having a series of vertically and horizontally spaced fixed contact members, the combination of a hollow rocking shaft, a pivot stud carried by said rocking shaft and mounted to rotate at right angles to the axis thereof, a sliding member mounted to reciprocate within said hollow rocking shaft, and means connecting said sliding member with said stud to rotate said stud in one direction on the reciprocation of said sliding member, a switch arm carried by said stud, a second sliding member mounted to slide within said iollow rocking shaft, and means operated by said second sliding member to disengage said connecting means from said first sliding member and means for returning said stud and its switch arm to its starting position on he disengagement of said connecting means between said first sliding member and said stud.

4. In a selector switch for automatic telephone systems having a series of vertically and horizontally spaced fixed contact members, the combination of a hollow rocking shaft, a stud mounted to turn on said rocking shaft at right angles to the axis thereof, a switch arm carried by said stud, a sliding shaft mounted to reciprocate in said hollow rocking shaft, a ratchet carried by said stud, a pawl operated by said sliding shaft and adapted to engage said ratchet to give said ratchet a step by step movement in one direction at each reciprocating movement of said sliding shaft, a second sliding shaft mounted in said hollow shaft and means operated by said second sliding shaft for disengaging said pawl from said ratchet to release said stud and its switch arm and spring means for turning said stud and its switch arm in the opposite direction.

5. In a selector switch for automatic telephones having a series of vertically and horizontally spaced fixed contact members, the combination of a hollow rocking shaft, a pivot stud mounted to rotate on said rocking shaft at right angles to the axis thereof, a ratchet carried by said rocking shaft, a magnet, an armature operated by said magnet, pawl means carried by said armature and engaging said ratchet to move said ratchet in one direction on the operation of said armature by said magnet and hold said ratchet in the advanced position, a second magnet, an armature operated by said second magnet and means carried by said second armature to disengage said pawl means from said ratchet, spring means for rotating said ratchet and said rocking shaft in the opposite di rection on the disengagement of said pawl means from said ratchet, a sliding member mounted within said hollow shaft, an electric circuit for energizing said second magnet, a switch operated by said sliding member and controlling said electric circuit, a switch arm mounted to swing on said rocking shaft at right angles to the axis thereof and operating means carried by said switch member for moving said sliding member at a predetermined position of said switch member and operate said switch to energize said second magnet and move said armature of said second magnet to disengage said pawl means from said ratchet.

WILLIAM K. SCHNEPF. 

